Hatley

It started over twenty years ago with a sense of humour, a talented painter Alice Oldland, her restless husband John, and The Little Blue House gift store in the lakeside village of North Hatley, Canada.
Alice, inspired by the countryside around her, had just finished a series of paintings depicting farmyard animals. Needing a venue to show her work, Alice opened a gallery above her gift shop The Little Blue House. John watched the paintings sell and thought he could create a line of aprons based on Alice’s artwork. John was right, the aprons sold and kept on selling. They quickly turned this cottage business into the company Hatley, supplying retailers with the best cow and pig aprons the world had ever seen. Cows and pigs gave birth to moose and bears, aprons led to gifts and clothing. Hatley thrived, but it was all so much work and John and Alice were looking for a life less complicated.